PARIS: Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday issued his first message since his elevation to the post, threatening revenge for his father’s killing, though he did not deliver the declaration in person. Khamenei’s father Ali Khamenei, supreme leader since 1989, was killed on February 28 at the start of the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic in an air strike that also claimed the lives of other top security officials and family members.

Mojtaba Khamenei is a surprise appointment, but his accession is above all a statement of defiance, says Sina Toossi of the Center for International Policy

"The Iranians are showing defiance by choosing the son of Khamenei," a former diplomat told CNBC.